Leishmaniasis is a debilitating disease prevalent across many inter-tropical regions of the world including India, Sudan and Brazil. Caused by over twenty species of intracellular parasite from the genus Leishmania, leishmaniasis can present itself in a number of different clinical manifestations including cutaneous, mucosal and visceral forms of the disease. Both the cutaneous and mucosal forms can cause severe disfigurement to patients including ulcerative skin lesions and the destruction of the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth and throat leading to permanent disfigurement and frequent social ostracization. However it is the visceral form of the disease that represents the greatest threat to human health, with symptoms ranging from fever and weight loss in the initial stages to the development of spleneomegaly (a dramatic enlargement of the spleen) and ultimately multisystem infection and death in untreated cases. Visceral leishmaniasis is caused by a small sub-group of the Leishmania parasites, principally L. donovani, L. infantum and L. chagasi. Current treatment is limited to only a few viable alternatives, each of which suffers from drawbacks either in terms of efficacy, toxicity or cost. Until recently the most widely used therapeutic in most regions of the world was pentavalent antimony. Though initially highly efficacious with an estimated 90-95% cure rate in most areas after its introduction in the 1950's, this treatment has suffered from increasing emergence of resistance fuelled by the high rate of patient non-compliance due to the exceedingly long treatment period. Additionally the relatively high toxicity of this treatment regimen kills an estimated 2-5% of patients as a direct effect of drug toxicity. Alternative therapeutics include liposomal amphotericin B which is highly effective and requires only a short course of treatment but is too expensive to be a viable treatment option in most developing nations, and miltefosine, an alkylphospholipid recently licensed for use against visceral leishmaniasis in India, Germany and Colombia which has shown excellent cure rates, but which is also already facing instances of resistance in some areas. This shortfall of affordable and clinically efficacious treatments has led the World Health Organization to designate leishmaniasis as a category 1 disease, signifying that it is an emerging and uncontrolled global health problem. There is clearly therefore a pressing need for the development of new drugs to treat leishmaniasis, and it is with this aim that the Panama International Cooperative for Biodiversity Group (ICBG) is investigating Panamanian microorganisms for lead compounds with antileishmanial activity.
Human African trypanosomiasis or Sleeping sickness is a parasitic disease of people and animals, caused by protozoa of the species Trypanosoma brucei and transmitted by the tsetse fly. The disease is endemic in some regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, covering about 36 countries and 60 million people. It is estimated that 50,000 to 70,000 people are currently infected. The current standard treatment for first stage trypanosomiasis employs administering intravenous pentamidine (for T.b. gambiense) or intravenous suramin (for T.b. rhodesiense). Alternative first line therapies include using intravenous melarsoprol with or without oral nifurtimox. Intravenous eflornithine may also be used. The current standard treatment for second stage (later stage) disease uses intravenous melarsoprol.